The MV Northern Adventure, BC Ferries latest vessel, hardly a year in service after the MV Queen of the North sinking, was sideline in the middle of its planned run between Prince Rupert and Pt Hardy on the January 2nd, 2008. According to the BC Ferries press release the engine, a MaK 16m32, shut down on safeties.
From the press release, it would appear that engine room staff used dirty lube oil to top off main engine lube oil sump(s), which contained a large amount of water. Ouch, that's going to leave a mark. Reminds me of the time I accidently put half a liter of Drewclean instead of Drew Enginewt in the make up tank. Boy, my obsessive cleanliness was taken to whole new level. ehehehe
Not being satisfied with purifying the oil, mama corp trucked fresh oil into Bella Coola , which was then transported by another BC Ferry to Bella Bella where the Northern Adventure was tied up. Once the oil was changed the ferry, having missed much of its intented schedule, returned to Prince Rupert to resume sailing on the 5th of January.
There must be more to the story. I am not sure how many screws, or engines are on that ship, but I would think it has at least two engines, it must be a badly designed plumbing to allow that to happen. If they are pumping from a drum, what a silly mess. To sideline the whole ship means they must have put dirty oil in all of the sumps, otherwise they could have kept going with the other shaft.
Mmmmmmm, interesting. Obviously there was a serious mistake that I am sure will not be made again with all this publicity.
Labels: BC Ferries, MaK, near miss, Queen of the North, west coast
